About

RickB- Human, Artist, Fool.

Ynys Mon, UK.

The blog is called ten percent because of what Kurt Vonnegut wrote when remembering Susan Sontag - She was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.-

And I'm writing it because I need the therapy and I lust for world domination.

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Ian Davison actually had made Ricin, in oder to conduct terrorist attacks, when the BBC reported this story online they censored out he was a white supremacist and this further instance of vicious right wing terrorism has received I would say about 1% (at best) of the coverage of a Muslim who might once have thought the word ‘Ricin’. As needs to be said again this is not simply a discreet establishment protection of fascist terror, it is a Europe wide policy. The simple point is this- people are going to be hateful and violent, (and lovely and splendid, there are all kinds of everything, ahem) when these qualities are obsessively & spitefully documented in one ethnic or religious group while they are excused and covered up for in another group that is not an accident, that is tribalism. Our establishment is white and right wing, they feel comfortable with their own even when they are terrorists (ask the spooks about its chums in the Loyalist terror gangs, well don’t bother they’ll say fuck all or just lie to you), however they are stricken with panic and revulsion when the alien other also (shock horror surprise surprise etc) acts in the same human way as they do.

Racism. Tribalism.

I am always impressed our *enlightened* media manage to report on Africa with reference to tribalism but our big shiny developed world is of course beyond such primitive behaviour. We really do need to Study Up. The extent to which right wing terror is hidden and excused is the extent to which our society wallows in unthinking entitlement and privilege, more sinisterly it also indicates a tolerance and even support among organs of state power for certain ideologies. Speaking of which… turns out Total Politics (nb. I don’t take part in their blog ranking polls, fixed tory nonsense) are going to publish a nice big interview with Nick Griffin.

The excavation of a mass grave on a Granada hillside where the poet Federico Garcia Lorca was murdered during the Spanish Civil War has reinforced calls for the area to be investigated. “Lorca was just one of 4,000 executions on a roadside just a kilometre long,” says Juan Antonio Lopez Diaz, a Granada University professor. “There are so many bodies there that pine trees were planted just to stop them being uncovered by rainfall erosion.”

After years of debate, digging finally began last week at the mass grave where half a dozen men, possibly including Lorca, were killed and buried on 18 August 1936 by hitmen from General Franco’s right-wing Nationalist forces. A huge white tent has been erected, surrounded by a two-metre high metal fence, to ward off the media during the two-month investigation.

There are no such restrictions on area less than a mile away known simply as “the ravines of Viznar”. This is where mass executions of hundreds of other sympathisers of the doomed Spanish Republic were summarily executed.

“We had our desaparecidos [disappeared] way before the term became famous during the 1970s South American dictatorships,” Diaz Lopez added. “During the war in Granada anybody with even the slightest connection to the ‘wrong’ side risked illegal execution. And that went on well into Franco’s regime.”

Under Mark Thompson (now there’s a mental image to run screaming from), BBC history repeats itself, first as satire then as policy. Hmmmmm.

Meanwhile, oh no, more leaks than a sieve and while this is a bit underhand… I mean really if you are ashamed of being a hateful nazi then…d’you think that might be telling you something? I would recommend this for the reality of what the BNP contributes to (the BBC giveth and it taketh away).

Hope Not Hate- The Welsh Defence League – a violent group of anti-Islamic football hooligans – plan on holding an event in Swansea this Saturday and in Newport a week later. A few weeks ago racists attacked worshippers at a mosque in Swansea, culminating in a pitched battle involving sixty people. Now the WDL want to have another go.

Such actions shame us all – and we must do all that we can to stop this violence occurring again.

Our Welsh organisation, Searchlight Cymru, have just written a letter to the Western Mail stating that we all reject the fear and intimidation of the Welsh Defence League.

And I’d like you to co-sign the letter as well – the WDL may be focusing their attacks on the Welsh Muslim community but by doing so they attack us all:

In truth, this isn’t about religion. It’s about figures on the far right trying to create fear and tension within and between communities – and then capitalise on this division.

But as we understand what they are trying to do, you, I and the thousands of people who view each of us as equals can organise against their hatred and send a clear message: we reject your hate, we reject your fear, we are stronger together than apart.

If you agree with this sentiment please co-sign my letter – and then pass it to all of your friends to co-sign as well:

The Anne Frank House Wednesday released the only existing film images of Frank, showing the young Jewish girl, whose famous diary detailed her family’s two torturous years spent in hiding from the Nazis, in a more carefree time as she watches a bride and groom from her apartment balcony in Amsterdam. In the grainy black and white YouTube video, Frank is shown leaning over the balcony to watch an eager young newlywed couple as they walk past the sidewalk adjacent to the Amsterdam apartment Frank lived in before she and her family moved into the annex behind father Otto’s office to escape Hitler’s regime. The July 22, 1941 video is the first-ever released film image of Frank. It was given to the Anne Frank House from the married couple, who lived on the same floor as the Franks.

I think it’s very effective, ties her into the here and now which will hopefully help keep the message alive, the lesson of the Holocaust is that this must never happen again to anyone. The need to remain vigilant is as pressing as ever, contemporary Nazis & sympathisers are going to be on Question Time, the BBC apparently finding their ideas compelling and speaking at the Tory party conference.

Italian lawmakers on Thursday gave final approval to controversial legislation that makes illegal immigration a punishable offence and allows mayors to form civilian anti-crime patrols in towns and cities. The bill was approved by 157 votes for to 124 against, in the upper house Senate. The lower house Chamber of Deputies had already approved the package in May. A provision to triple the time illegal immigrants can be detained in holding centres, is also included in the package which is now law.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government relied on confidence votes in both houses of parliament to ensure approval of the measures which are strongly supported by the ruling coalition’s junior partner, the anti-immigration Northern League party. Italy’s centre-left opposition, the Catholic Church and human rights activists have slammed what they say is the criminalisation of would-be immigrants.

The law won’t help defend Italian citizens from crime and “seriously violates the civil rights of immigrants whose work is indispensable to keep thousands of businesses going,” said leading centre-left Democratic Party senator, Anna Finocchiaro. But in his response Maurizio Gasparri from Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party said the government “is proud” of achieving an objective which helps fulfill promises to “combat crime”. Under the provisions, people entering Italy without permission face fines of up to 10,000 euros (14,084 dollars), while anyone renting housing to an illegal immigrant faces up to three years in prison. Critics also allege the citizen-patrols would amount to vigilante groups who are likely to harass foreigners. But Interior Minister and senior Northern League official, Roberto Maroni, has said the patrols would mostly consist of unarmed, retired police officers.

Many immigrants are afraid to seek medical care in Italy because they fear they will be expelled from the country, according to a survey by the Italian-based human rights group EveryOne. The group’s survey was released on Thursday as the Italian parliament approved a law making illegal immigration a crime.

“Reports have confirmed the recent sharp drop in the number of migrants seeking medical care for serious illnesses,” said Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, co-presidents of the EveryOne Group in a media statement.

The new Italian law provides for anti-crime patrols in towns and cities and triples the amount of time illegal immigrants can be detained in holding centres from two to six months. Apart from doctors and school principals, every one is required under the law to report illegal migrants to the authorities.

The denial of medical care and fear among migrants is similar in the UK, maybe that is why the fascism in Italy goes unremarked upon by the Neoliberal EU establishment, it is something they really rather admire.

Branco Marinkovic, Argentine fascists, and US Embassy security personel, our buddies at the Human Rights Foundation were also involved by partially funding the mercenary group. Apparently the faux human rights organization doesn’t just hire mentally unstable bloggers like Alek Boyd, they now also have criminal fugitives from Bolivia on their roster, Hugo Acha.

So what of Shell?

2008- The Shell oil company is under great pressure from the Bolivian government to reduce its presence in the country, or even to withdraw completely. President Evo Morales issued an ultimatum at the end of March, giving the company till 30 April to agree to sell off its activities to the Bolivian state.

Ok, they must have been upset. Now imagine, people trying to kill Evo Morales just so happened to have a history working security for Shell, oh coincidences!

Among them the Szekler Legion’s leader 32-year-old Romanian Hungarian Tibor Revesz who worked for Integrated Risk Management Security (I-RMS) at the Mayo sites. There are indications other Szekler Legion members have worked in Ireland, with the organisation’s internet site selling patches associated with the Corrib project.

One patch, with a skull and Celtic motif carries the slogan “OSS — Operation Solitaire Shield 2008 Corrib Gas Project”, believed to refer to the Solitaire ship which was to be used for pipe-laying at the site.

The Szekler Legion have been implicated in violent incidents in Romania. The group openly promotes neo-fascism and race hate.

Among the Szekler Legion’s members were Magyarosi Arpak and Elot Toazo. Arpak, 28, was shot dead by Bolivian security forces alongside Tipperary native Michael Dwyer, 24 in Bolivia. In the same operation Toazo was arrested.

The Bolivian government has accused the Tipperary man and his companions of planning terrorist attacks, including the assassination of the country’s socialist President Evo Morales. The gang’s leader Eduardo Rozsa Flores, 48, was also killed in the raid. Flores was a neo-fascist activist and an “honorary member” of the Szekler Legion.

Five skinheads formed a guard of honour at the Tipperary man’s grave in Tullyglass cemetery just a few hours after he was buried last Thursday. A Garda source said they were members of Hungarian right-wing group, the Szekler Legion. Cops believe Dwyer forged links with the fascist group on the internet before flying to Bolivia to take a security job.

Of course it’s entirely possible such lovely individuals found other benefactors and left all ties to Shell behind, it would just be a happy accident of fate their objective would have alleviated the problems their former employer Shell was having in Bolivia. It’s nice when friends and colleagues, current and former share interests, innit?

At the end of 2007 I-RMS ‘security operatives’ replaced the majority of security guards employed by Shell. A substantial number of these ‘operatives’ have military backgrounds and dubious far-right political links. I-RMS have faced numerous complaints from protestors, having been accused of assault, heavy handedness and failure to wear or present their Private Security Authority licences. They have also routinely filmed protestors and indeed Dwyer himself was involved in this gathering of intelligence for Shell. On their website, offline and ‘under construction’ in the wake of Dwyer’s death, I-RMS had advertised their services, specialising in “international armed and unarmed security”, “customised security solutions” and “special services”, unquestionably all euphemisms for mercenary work. I-RMS have also been used by Fianna Fáil at their last few ardfheiseanna. So not only does I-RMS protect the nefarious multinational Shell in their robbery of Irish gas, they also defend the politicians who facilitated this grand theft. Who said three’s a crowd? Maura Harrington, the courageous veteran Shell to Sea campaigner, castigated I-RMS as “Shell’s private army in North Mayo”. This hired muscle for capitalism has been doing the state’s dirty work, while Gardaí turn a blind eye. They are no more than a hired gang of thugs and fascists.